Wheelies: The Future Infiniti Edition

Image

The Infiniti Q30 concept.CreditNissan North America

By Benjamin Preston

July 9, 2014

A roundup of motoring news from the web:

■ Infiniti announced this week that it planned to build its QX30 crossover and Q30 hatchback at its English plant beginning next year. Production capacity would be about 60,000 vehicles a year. Andy Palmer, Infiniti’s chairman, said the factory’s output would supply demand in the United States and China. (Automotive News, subscription required)

■ Zhan Baosheng, a Chinese businessman, has sued Tesla Motors for trademark infringement because he registered the Tesla name in China before the California-based electric automaker’s expansion there. Mr. Zhan has demanded that Tesla Motors cease its sales and marketing activities in China, shut down its retail stores and charging stations and pay him nearly $3.9 million. (Reuters)

■ BMW’s lead in the luxury car segment has narrowed slightly as its German competitors, Audi and Mercedes-Benz, see improved sales. In the first half of 2014, Audi sold 16,997 fewer cars than BMW — compared with 23,760 at this time last year — and Mercedes-Benz sold 102,827 fewer cars, a 6.3 percent decrease in BMW’s lead. (Bloomberg)

■ Amid salary and production discussions, nearly 70 percent of the more than 14,000 General Motors workers in South Korea voted to go on strike. The union that represents the workers is trying to renegotiate, among other things, a wage scheme that has been in place for six decades. (Reuters)

■ “Rolling coal,” the practice of modifying a diesel engine to emit thick, sooty black smoke through the exhaust pipe, has long been a way to increase the stage presence of diesel entries at tractor pulls. Now, it is being used, often on large pickup trucks equipped with big-rig-style exhaust stacks, as a form of protest against environmental regulators and their supposedly Prius-driving supporters. Although it is legal, rolling coal tends to waste fuel, and one coal roller told Slate Magazine said that it was “like throwing dollar bills out the window.” (Slate)

■ According to a report from Autocar, Porsche is developing an 8-cylinder supercar aimed at besting the Ferrari 458. It will have a midmounted flat-8 engine that may produce about 600 horsepower, the report said, and possibly the option of a hybrid-electric all-wheel-drive system. (Autocar)

■ Auctions America will hold a sale in Auburn, Ind., at the end of August that will feature cars built by three of luxury automakers once headquartered there: Auburn Automobile, the Cord Corporation and Duesenberg Automobile & Motors Company. Among the vehicles scheduled to be auctioned are a 1936 Duesenberg SJ dual-cowl phaeton, a 1937 Cord 812 Supercharged Sportsman and a 1931 Auburn Model 8-98 Boattail Speedster. (Hemmings Daily)